New type of Defense called ASLR to fight against MALWARE in MS Vista

Mike Howard talks about a new piece of technology coming with Windows Vista designed to help fight malware attacks. Called Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) - it randomizes where system code is put into memory instead of using the same spot in memory which allows the system to be a target for specific types of malware that looks within memory to find important pieces of system code. In short, with ASLR - system code has 256 spots it can randomly be placed in memory allowing it to become harder to exploit system code in memory. Now, attackers have a 1/256 chance of finding that important piece of code to exploit. Mike goes into great detail on ASLR on his blog. I suggest reading it. I believe ASLR is one of many important code changes in Windows Vista that changes the standard behavior that has caused Windows to be a target of malware for many years. With features like this, users are going to be able to experience a much safe Windows experience with Vista. Source: Michael Howard's Web Log